Health Department Headquarters, Basque, Spain

History
Before the Spanish Constitution 1978 and its system autonomous communities, these three provinces were known in Spanish as the Provincias Vascongadas. The political structure the new autonomous community is defined in the Gernika Statute, which was approved by a majority in a referendum held on 25 October 1979. Nowadays it is one the most decentralized regions in the world, in this regard it has been quoted as having "more autonomy than just about any other in Europe" by The Economist.
In 2003, the governing Basque Nationalist Party proposed to alter this statute through the Ibarretxe Plan. The project, though approved by majority in the Basque chamber, was finally rejected by a large majority in the Madrid Cortes Generales on the grounds that it contradicts the Spanish Constitution.
In this regard, Basque nationalists cite the fact that in the 1978 Spanish Constitution referendum, which was passed with a majority votes in the Basque Country, the Basque Country had the highest abstention (the Basque Nationalist Party had endorsed abstention on the grounds that the Constitution was being forced upon them without any Basque input). To this, the "no" vote in this referendum was also higher in the Basque Country than in the rest the state. All in all, many Basques believe that they are not bound to a constitution that they never endorsed.